Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - We lost some good ones in 2021

  As has been my custom for 18 years, I like for my yearend column to be a remembrance of Alabama political figures who have passed away during the year.

  We lost some good ones this year. We lost our oldest past governor, John Patterson in June.  Governor Patterson passed away at age 99 at his ancestral home in rural Tallapoosa County surrounded by his family.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The GOP Birmingham club

  There is a cadre of politicos in Birmingham who are approaching their 60s that have been a close knit group of true blue Republicans since the get go. They have probably never been or needed to run as Democrats. More than likely, they were Goldwater Republicans when they were little boys. Most certainly they were Nixon and Reagan Republicans in their youth.